


Bastille Day

by softly_speaking_valkyrie



Series: Love Across the Stars [9]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Assassination Attempt(s), Assassination Plot(s), Awkward Flirting, Breathplay, Canon-Typical Violence, Casual Sex, Cunnilingus, Drinking, Erotica, Eventual Smut, F/F, Flirting, Fluff, Force Bond (Star Wars), Friendship / Flirting / Thinking of You Fest, Gen, Hair-pulling, Implied Sexual Content, Inappropriate Use of the Force, One Night Stands, Oral Sex, Orgasm, Platonic Relationships, Porn With Plot, Post-Canon, Romance, Rough Oral Sex, Rough Sex, Smut, Some Plot, Teasing, Vaginal Fingering
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-31
Updated: 2020-11-17
Packaged: 2021-03-09 02:47:08
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 20,208
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27297370
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/softly_speaking_valkyrie/pseuds/softly_speaking_valkyrie
Summary: Following the beginning of her Jedi Training on Ach-To under the tutelage of Master Luke Skywalker, and after her intense encounter with Captain Phasma on Takodana, Rey returns to embark on a mercy mission for the Resistance at the behest of General Organa. With Kaydel Ko Connix, Rose Tico, Chewbacca and the droids, Rey travels to the Mid Rim world of Naboo, home of Leia's mother to partake in a summit between the Resistance, Nubians and Gungans to secure aid for Leia. However, still reeling from her sexual experience with Phasma, Rey's mind is elsewhere, trying to move on and forget the intensity of the night in the monsoon. With Rose close by and having eyes for the fledgling Jedi, things seem to be only complicating further in her mind. When a stray Knight of Ren threatens to upturn the summit with an attempt on Rey's life, things only get worse...
Relationships: Kaydel Ko Connix/Rey, Rey/Rose Tico
Series: Love Across the Stars [9]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1756282
Comments: 30
Kudos: 8





	1. Omens

**Author's Note:**

  * For [rippler3](https://archiveofourown.org/users/rippler3/gifts).



> This could be considered a more direct sequel to my fic 'Power Play on Takodana' although some details may have been changed here since I wrote that fic years ago, but please indulge me. I've wanted to write Rey and Rose in my series for ages, and finally I had a sweet idea to make that happen. 
> 
> It all boils down to Rey feeling confused as hell after sleeping with Phasma in the middle of a monsoon and trying to come to terms with her needs after that. It's hard having an incredible night with someone and things getting in the way no matter how much you like them! Enter Rose, totally in lust over Rey... because it's Rey, and the young Padawan going with the flow because she's cute! 
> 
> Things can only get worse from here...

Chewbacca grumbled from the readouts on the Falcon’s display. The navicomputer echoed his findings as Rey finished her tinkering of the wiring behind her co-pilot – her fingers were singed and chewed up with her nails down almost to the bed. It was that damned compressor again. Yes, she had bypassed it, but the remaining hardware ingrained into the sacred innards of the _Millennium Falcon_ was still very much an unwanted problem. She’d had no time to address it, until Master Luke had given her leave from her studies to embark on this mission, and she was thankful for it.

The only other time she had left Ach-To was shortly after first finding it; taking Chewie back with Artoo and the Falcon to borrow _Black One_ for her own personal use. Commander Dameron had been sad to see it go, but General Organa had ordered it so.

Before landing with it back on Jedi Temple Island, the intrepid new Padawan had been grounded on Takodana by Captain Phasma in her TIE/oa Bomber. _Black One_ had served her well, keeping her and itself cloaked in the underbrush of the lush forests near the remains of Maz’s Castle. But Phasma was too aloof, a natural tracker, an adept stalker and predator unlike anything Rey had imagined her being – for a First Order stooge, an officer among stolen child soldiers, she was something totally foreign and alien to what Rey assumed their trackers would have been like. Vi Moradi had concurred what Rey had theorised, but even the chronicler hadn’t seen the depths of Phasma like Rey had on Takodana. She could still picture the woman’s body, her face a blur, her frame so muscular and so masculine it made Rey’s mouth almost water all over again as she stared into the vortex of Hyperspace.

Another holler in Shyriiwook snapped Rey’s attention from the dreamlike memories of intimacy with a First Order Captain back to the matter at hand. Chewbacca was pulling down on the throttle and experiencing a mild tension on the motivator. Rey bit her tongue almost and pursed her lips, slotting the red wire where the yellow had been.

“Try that, Chewie, it’ll have to do before we get her back to Crait...”

The Wookie howled in a whirling cry of what could only be Shyriiwook curse words, but the tension eased up and the Falcon was suddenly running a little easier for the veteran co-pilot. Rey slammed shut the hatch of the small compartment and stumbled back into the chair of the late Han Solo. It still felt like an extremely big pilot’s seat to fill as Rey’s hands gingerly graced the controls. Chewbacca howled quietly, drawing her attention to the navicomputer and spatial scanner before her.

“I see it, we’re coming up on Naboo,” she mused, reaching for the Hyperspace control rods and waiting for her companion’s guiding hand to join her. It was only the third time behind the rods and controls; Rey still felt lacking in the honour to act on her own. “Pulling out of Hyperspace,” she finished as soon as Chewie’s fingers touched the other couple of rods.

Both pulled on the control rods, and the shimmering vortex of Hyperspace stalled, flashing out and slowing into starlines, then stopping into the stationary backdrop of the heavens with a planetoid closely in front of the cockpit window. Rey leaned into the dashboard, pinging the alert to the commons area in the aft near the cargo hold and let loose a small smile. Another day, another new planet she’d yet to lay eyes on and the splendour of the galaxy had not been lost on her even after seeing Takodana (twice now, although the second time was her most closely guarded secret, so as not to betray herself or Phasma both).

“Wow... I’m amazed I’m not seeing Star Destroyers in orbit yet,” the voice of Rose Tico softly half-gasped behind them as she clambered into the cockpit and took up one of the rear seats. “It looks so beautiful.”

“It really does,” Rey agreed, seeing the cresting sun rising over the far side. The moon of Ohm-D’un got bigger and bigger until it was almost out of view around the left of the cockpit pane.

“Oh my – We’ve arrived in the Chommell System at last,” Threepio chirped in the doorway. Rey could hear Kaydel squeezing past him with a stifled groan.

“Come on, Goldenrod, organics first,” the diplomat argued, taking the seat beside Rose. “Beebeeate’s got the message from the General fully loaded onto his memory bank and Rose has checked his long-range transmitter, with any luck we’ll be able to establish a secure channel back to base for the delegation,” she explained, Threepio retreating back to the commons and to his new astromech counterpart – Artoo Deetoo was still beside the General on Crait along with Finn and Dameron. 

Rose leaned up a little more, careening over Rey’s shoulder closer than Chewbacca’s to examine the view she had this close of Naboo. It looked so serene to the mechanic, to Rey too, both could agree that there was no war here, or at least there wasn’t a war here yet. Rose was right, it was surprising that there were no Star Destroyers in orbit, especially given Supreme Leader Snoke’s ambition to push further into the Mid Rim and the Core Worlds before going after the Resistance. Rey had once counted it as a blessing that she was no longer at the top of the Supreme Leader’s priorities, and now in seeing Naboo so peaceful, she wished she was once more.

“Who are we meeting, Connix?” She asked, tossing her voice back to the rear of the cockpit as Rose calmed herself and met her gaze.

She looked pretty in her wayfarer’s outfit. The usual yellow jumpsuit and innocent cut of her oil-black hair had been swept away and she looked so much more profession – a true renegade and member of the upper echelons of the Resistance Base Command. Finn had declared her as his second, with Poe taking Tallie Lintra, and Kaydel still understudy to the General herself hence her involvement in this mission. Still, Rey’s eyes lingered gazing into Rose’s for but a moment, seeing more flashes of other things as her emotions swelled in the exchange of looks. Rose stirred something within the fledgling Jedi.

“Ryoo Naberrie is meeting in the Royal Hangar in the palace of Theed... We’re to begin the delegation in the morning with Queen Thetaan and Boss Futh in attendance,” Connix explained, having the whole thing memorised already. “We’ll transmit the General in through Beebeeate and plead our case for support.”

Rey rolled her shoulders. “With any luck we’ll have both the support of the Naboo and the Gungans then, right?”

“That’s the General’s plan.”

Rose tilted her head. “Ryoo Naberrie, isn’t that...”

Kaydel smiled, closing her eyes in a hardy look; Rey sensed she was trying to be the most collected person on the mission, the most professional when her thoughts really betrayed her. The Padawan had been at the whole Jedi Training business barely more than a month and already she could feel her connection deepening tenfold compared to her reading of Kylo Ren on Starkiller Base. True, he was so much easier to read than other sentient beings (the man’s hate and artificial anger were palpable, and his fear was readable even to someone who wasn’t Force Sensitive like Rey was), but now Rey was beginning to stretch out with her feelings time and time again. From behind her she could sense the amazement from Rose and the collected reservation of Connix, something deeper beneath her surface she wanted to keep quiet; Rey sensed loss and grief, but felt guilty prodding any further.

“She’s the General’s cousin – they met and learned about each other when she was protecting Theed from the Empire’s Operation Cinder with Iden Versio,” Connix continued to explain. Rey grinned, thinking the General’s ward sounded all the more like a chronicler, a walking encyclopaedia of historical events that were only just beginning to have any sort of relevancy to her at all.

Rey hadn’t known Versio before she died, but knew of Zay due to her outreach work, also for General Organa. She was as rarely at the Crait base as Rey was, each due to different commitments.

“If we have Beebeeate and his transmitter to reach Crait for the summit, and we have the General’s cousin... Remind me why we brought Threepio again?” Rose requested, comfortable that the golden-plated blabbermouth of a protocol droid with the red arm was no longer in receptor-shot.

Again, Rey grinned, at least knowing the answer to that before Connix had to explain it. She chuckled to herself, reading the explanation through Kaydel’s mind. “Have you ever heard a Gungan speaking, Rose?” She asked for Connix.

“I don’t think I’ve ever met a Gungan, actually...”

This time, Connix was laughing, letting her guard down and unfolding her arms as she and Rey both giggled a little at the unfortunate affair that was no doubt going to transpire before Rose Tico’s very ears. “Trust me, Rose... We’ll need Threepio,” Connix reminded her, still laughing a little under her breath.

“He _is_ fluent in over six million forms of communication, you know,” Rey added more than a little sarcastically. Chewie let out a soft roar in her ears, drawing attention to the scanner cluster and the sensor display as he tilted the control handles of the Falcon down, and let the old ship drift among the cloud layer – Theed was still a ways away from the angle of their descent. “Looks like our escort’s here to greet us,” Rey noted.

From within the plumes of luscious clouds, two small and shimmering blurs rose above the horizon while the soft beeping of the sensors tuned to their arrival. Chromium shone into the cockpit window pane, only softened by the tinting of the durable reinforced plasteel and glass alloy and failing to blind the two pilots. Then flashes of yellow kissed the air with the glint of the beautiful sunlight. They were starfighters, flashy and regal in their design of which Rey somewhat recognised from all her years studying ships and stunt fighters alike. Unlike the Incomm T-65 and T-70 X-Wings she had grown up dreaming of, or the RZ-2 A-Wings she had seen in the massive converted hangar bay of the Crait Resistance Base, these were of a different kind entirely. The escort fighters soared past either side of the cockpit view and then returned to take point and guide them in escort. A garbled static came over the comms and then a man’s voice, professional and expert.

“ _Millennium Falcon_ , this is Bravo Leader. We have you on our scopes and we’ll fly point all the way to Theed,” the fighter pilot affirmed. Rey was practically beaming as she caught a good look of the starfighters, and could tell Rose was doing the same – the fair mechanic was practically clinging to her shoulder to scramble for a better look. “Welcome to Naboo, Resistance,” Bravo Leader added before the transmission ceased and Chewie roared his firm approval.

Rose continued to look, her hand stuck to Rey’s shoulder for stability as she watched the yellow and chromium wings perform a few show manoeuvres. Rey was amazed by their twin thrusters – she recognised the J-Type style of the engines as well as the sharpness of the chassis. A ship that small and light-looking would have to have been sporting a Monarc C-4 class Hyperdrive, shielding was reinforced from the subsystems suite either in the aft behind the Astromech compartment or in the nose. Rey had seen twin laser cannons mounted inside the broad bow of the craft, between the thrusters, only blaster cannons and not the heavy armament an X-Wing or Y-Wing sported. These were still light starfighter craft and Rey doubted they were for much more than show and light pacification in peacekeeping exercises. Yet their design was very much royalty. She would have to look them up.

“Chewie takeover, I’m going to check the gear,” Rey excused herself, sending all of the control over to the co-pilot’s station before trying to jostle and squeeze out of the chair; any longer in its profile and she was beginning to think excitement would find her.

The Wookie mumbled another Shyriiwook retort under his roaring breath as he took the Falcon back into his control and eased her into a normal approach behind the two N-1 Starfighters. Rose’s gaze followed the fledgling Jedi out of the cockpit compartment and into the ringed corridors of the YT-1300. After a second or two of deliberating in her mind, she was out of her own seat and following her out of the room just as Threepio appeared again in the doorway. Kaydel shifted into the pilot’s chair if only to get a better look at the Nubian skyline as the clouds began to give view to the hilly and terrestrial terrain below. It looked like a natural utopia of flatlands.

“My programming indicates that Mistress Rey seems to be under a bit of stress since her return from training with Master Luke...” The golden protocol droid indicated, sitting down in Rose’s chair.

“Jedi Training must be hard... It’s not as if the rest of us are really doing anything... like fighting a war against an overwhelming monstrous force that threatens the stability and future of the whole galaxy,” Kaydel mumbled to herself, surprised that Chewie didn’t shoot down her rough rebuke. She knew she shouldn’t think like it, but some part of her couldn’t help it when she didn’t understand.

There was a reprieve, a moment’s awkward silence as Chewie rolled his furry shoulders in command of the freighter. “I do believe that you were invoking sarcasm, Miss Connix,” Threepio broke the silence.

“Thank you, Threepio...” Connix sighed, slouching further.

“You are most welcome, Miss.”

* * *

Rey checked her blaster, feeling a sense of uneasiness suddenly around holding its smooth grip. Han had given her the snub-nosed revolver-style blaster, the first kind of real weapon she’d ever held apart from the staff she’d scavenged from the Jakku Ship Graveyards or the flight sticks of Constable Zuvio’s Quadjumper before flying the Falcon. And yet only now did it make her feel anxious to hold the silver blaster in her hands. The safety was still on but that was not what she was feeling negative about, nor the presence of her Master’s father’s lightsaber in the hoop of her utility belt.

Something was amiss; Rey set the blaster pistol back into her satchel with ration packs, her commlink and a dozen other things she had brought with her from Ach-To and from Crait on this mission. Nowadays she was prepared for anything as the gnawing reminder of Kylo Ren remained a permanent fixture in the back of her mind. Of course, the faint name of Supreme Leader Snoke turning his draconian gaze coreward did something to ease her anxiety, but over the months she had had the chance to analyse her duel in the snow-covered forests of Starkiller in great detail. With the lightsaber of his own grandfather, Rey had bested Kylo Ren and completely mutilated his face, cutting him in a way she perhaps hadn’t have intended to.

Or had she? Even now, some time afterwards, the old Padawan couldn’t tell if she had meant to defeat the Dark Jedi so utterly and completely as to scar his visage like that. But surely... he had deserved it. He’d killed his own father. And she had said it herself to Master Luke – there was no light inside of Kylo Ren anymore, only darkness. So why did she feel so conflicted about defeating him like that?

_How a Jedi chooses to win, the question is..._

“What?” Rey asked the windy voice, turning around the cargo compartment and seeing only Rose treading lightly behind her, coming into the commons alone as Beebeeate was leaving. His warbles echoed down the corridors.

Rose gently smiled. “I... I didn’t say anything,” she blushed.

“Sorry,” Rey sighed awkwardly, almost blushing herself. “I suppose I have a lot on my mind since getting back from the island,” she confessed, knowing she needed to share more. Intense training with Master Luke made for a strenuous lifestyle on Jedi Temple Island and Rose was the near-perfect person to reach out to.

In her mind, Rey continued to repeat the first lessons Luke had taught to her on her second day on Ach-To. Over and over she repeated them in the back of her mind, even as Rose came closer. _There is no emotion, there is peace. There is no ignorance, there is knowledge. There is no passion, there is serenity. There is no chaos, there is harmony. There is no death, there is the Force._ So then how could the Force explain Takodana and her encounter with Phasma? If there was no passion, if there was no emotion, if there was no chaos... was there providence? Rey’s questions remained unanswered, meanwhile Rose was right in front of her, as she had been back on Crait.

She was looking at Rey with fond eyes, like she had done the first few times she had met the former scavenger. Rey’s expression acutely mirrored her own. She was happy Rose had followed her to say the least, and now they were closer and alone, even without Beebeeate. The small moment together in the belly of the Falcon felt like peace, felt like harmony.

“Can I ask you something?” Rose asked.

“Of course.”

Rey was breathing a little heavier, that numbing reminder in her mind bringing up the uneasiness from her holding of her blaster. Rose’s presence iced it over, softening the hard knot Rey was having trouble with dealing in the pit of her stomach. A week or so of analysing her encounter with Phasma had made her feel stretched while she knew the mechanic had looked at her in ways she’d tried to mirror.

“Do you know how I pulled the detail for this mission?” The mechanic continued, crossing the gap between herself and Rey a little more.

The Padawan cocked a glance, confused before crossing back to her ready bag and Rose following her, knowing she was trying to conceal a smile. “I’m not sure what you mean,” Rey tried not to tease. She stumbled, fumbling her fingers as she tried to maintain the grace and careful nimbleness she knew Rose had picked her up on – the mechanics emotions betrayed her and Rey felt guilty in reading them through the small connection she had through the Force.

“Come on, Rey... I’m just a mechanic, a deck hand for Dameron and Lintra,” Rose reminded her. “Not really diplomatic material, am I?” She asked, gently smiling as she put herself in the corners of Rey’s vision against the lockers.

Her presence was soothing to Rey. With a hand on the blaster again, Rey struggled against the tense feeling it inspired in the pit of her stomach and the offsetting ease of Rose next to her. She reaching behind her neck and pulled at the bottom loop of her hair until it was undone, then the second. A small bob of dirty black hair flowed down to an inch above her shoulders, something more presentable than the same style she had sported as a scavenger on Jakku. Now, with Rose at her side, she was a long ways away from the small dusty planetoid; Naboo was something of a different kind of world she had been told.

Turning, she smiled at Rose a little wearily, trying to fathom her own feelings as much as she understood the faint traces of the mechanic’s that she sensed. “Maybe you underestimate General Leia’s faith in you.”

Rose’s hand darted to her own, taking it off of the blaster and holding it gingerly yet firmly at the same time. “Or maybe a certain Jedi had sway on the duty roster and she’s the reason I’m here instead of someone like Finn or Commander D’Acy, huh?” She smiled, the adorable plump of her cheeks more than a little pink from blushing.

She truly was adorable. Rey felt enthralled by the beauty of her youth, how appealing Rose was on the eyes, easy to look at or even stare at. And it seemed like she wanted Rey to look at her the way she was smiling. They’d met glances across the workshop-like hangar complex of the Crait base – Rey had been working on _Black One_ and Poe’s new T-70 X-Wing which he had already named _Finn’s Dare_ after his sweetheart. At the same time, Rose had found her across the hangar, going over manifests and part orders with her sister Paige (Deck Chief aboard the _Raddus_ and practically glued to Tallie Lintra’s hip planetside). She’d looked to be actively searching out the famed Rey, the only Jedi in the Resistance until the time where everyone thought Luke would eventually return.

It had only been days, but neither of them could muster the courage or passion to either ask or stop – and always complicating things was the secret Rey had about Takodana, and the rational want to move past it. Rose seemed like as good a girl to lose herself with as any other.

“Maybe... Maybe I had a word with Commander Dameron,” the Padawan teased, turning her body until her back was against the opened locker and Rose was rounding to balance in front of her.

“Seems like a likely scenario, right?”

“Possibly... And what if I did?” The former scavenger smiled, her hips rocking upward a little. Lessons she had learned on Jakku, more private memories she kept hidden of the life of experienced and sapphic woman of the trashier side of galactic culture began to work. This was how other women had spoken to her, and Rey had the particular talent of bouncing between a willing and dominant woman.

Now she was liking it – now she was liking being more energetic than the adorable Rose.

“I would... have to thank you for taking me to such a beautiful planet like Naboo...” Rose alluded.

There was an audible cough coming from the threshold into the corridor. The rolling of the ball-shaped body of Beebeeate was rolling in after the cough, revealing the small astromech and Connix standing before entering the commons. “Chewie needs you in the cockpit, Rey,” Kaydel told her. “Can we prepare to land?”

“We’ve reached Theed?” The Jedi asked, her attention clawed away from flirting with Rose and the bad omen of her hand on her blaster. She thanked Connix as she nodded an answer, and lifted herself off of the locker before closing it.

They all moved back to the cockpit, Threepio already filing out of the seat to make room for the organics and knowing his place. Beebeeate still rolled behind them, suddenly wanting to be with his human friends with cheerful warbles and excited beeps. “Oh! Mistress Rey, we have arrived at the Royal Palace,” the golden protocol droid informed her with his stiff arm rising to the level of his robotic head. Rey smiled at him as she led the other two women.

“Take your seat in the back with Beebeeate, okay?” She told him respectfully. “Chewie, start the landing cycle,” she spoke to her co-pilot who howled an affirmative before she could take her seat. Kaydel and Rose filed in, looking out the cockpit again.

Chewie took the Falcon low, circling the waterfall right next to a very large hangar bay. Like all of the buildings scattered all around the grounds of the Theed grounds, the hangar sported a beautiful seafoam green tiled roof with sandy beige brick noting every establishment. All of it looked perfectly uniform, unlike most of the worlds Rey had seen so far. Rose looked impressed too, and even Kaydel more than a little as she observed the extended landing platform out of the front of the hangar. The two N-1 Starfighters filed into the dock and out of view entirely while the Falcon slowed and dipped lower and lower.

“Oh look,” Connix chirped. “Ryoo’s already here to greet us.”

“Who’s the other woman she’s with?” Rose asked, pointing over Rey’s shoulder to another and more regal figure robed in ceremonial and illustrious garments. Even from this distance, all of the Resistance women could tell she was royalty.

“I’m guessing that’s Her Majesty,” Rey mused.

“Mhm... That would be Queen Taine Thetaan,” she riddled off again. “She’s one of the youngest Queens ever elected,” she then added.

“So she’s, what... in her early thirties? Late twenties?” Rose inquired.

“Thetaan’s only thirteen,” Kaydel corrected. Rey and Rose simultaneously took a double take, and then nearly choked on air as they got close enough to see her youthful complexion standing next to the fifty-eight year-old Ryoo Naberrie, cousin to General Organa. Thirteen, and Queen – _elected_ Queen at that. Rose looked incredulously at Connix. “Naboo has a tradition of inspiring the youth into public service. Padmé Amidala, the General’s mother, was only fourteen when elected. Queen Apailana at the end of the Clone Wars was the youngest at twelve...” And yet Rose was still shocked to her core.

Rey breathed, trying to take in the breathtaking view of the waterfall as the Falcon landed with a shunt and a hiss. She could feel the landing cycle fulfil itself as the Hyperdrive and engines powered down at her touch; Chewie handled the rest and put the ship into a sleeping hibernation. There would be on Naboo for at least two days, and already Rey was wanting to get stuck in and deal with the mission at hand. But then looking around her at the verdant ridge that went on for miles and miles, she couldn’t help but feel that same wonder she’d felt when seeing Takodana for the first time.

In her mind now, the crash of a monsoon thunder interrupted her daydream and suddenly her hands were bound and fingers knotting through sweaty tufts of ratty blonde hair. Strong hands gripped her body and manhandled her as they met.

Once again Chewie saved her from her spell. She got up and left with Kaydel and Rose; at least the negotiations were taking place tomorrow – Rey needed to relax for now, and Rose was eyeing her with much the same intentions. They were staying at the palace, after all.


	2. Senses

The Nubian design of the N-1s looked all the more gorgeous up close, even as the sun had begun to disappear behind the ridge of the green and tepid plains beyond the flats at the base of the Theed waterfall. Connix and the droids had united with Ryoo Naberrie and the Queen for an evening of courtly entertainment and pre-summit discussions without the General present, but Rey wasn’t yet much cop of endless talks with politicians and dignitaries. While Chewie’s place was on the Falcon as its caretaker now without his partner, Rey’s place was wherever she found herself to be.

Right now, that was endlessly walking about the Royal hangar looking at the single fighter wing of the yellow and chromium parade starfighters until she grew weary and tired.

Theed was surprisingly quiet, even with the faint thrashing of the waterfall drawing from the canals of the royal city. The hangar was as quiet as a tomb, totally still without an engineer in sight – she felt somewhat blessed to be allowed in by the leader of Bravo Flight. To see the old but still gorgeous starfighters was another experience the young Padawan never thought she would have. No astromech droids chirped either, nothing to disturb her tranquil serenity among the parade fighter craft.

Luke’s teachings came back to her now among the machinery. Rey calmed herself and found a space in the very middle of the lanes, rows of N-1 craft on either side of the expansive hangar to accompany her. She breathed slowly, in through her nose and out through her mouth, trying to attune herself to the will and living Force all around her on this new planet. With the Force as her ally, surrounding her she reached out to search for other life forms, for the mystic energies all around the planet. The knowledge of the Ashla, of the Bogan, of the Bendu, all of them came back into her mind with all their feelings filling her senses. She uttered the Jedi Code again silently in her mind, keeping herself in balance and maintaining her composure – leaning far enough into her deep meditations like this could open her up to visions, delusions of the Force’s nature. Master Skywalker had warned her clearly of that, telling her of a time on Dagobah where he saw the future.

Rey made her way to a stack of cargo containers and seated herself, the gentle noise of the hangar’s emptiness ringing out in the rafters. She wouldn’t stay long, merely enough time to center herself and glisten some calm to counteract the mild scare of the feeling she’d had when reaching for her blaster. It had felt so uneasy, like a looming presence on the horizon, coming for her with the force of hatred and guile. All in all it had reminded Rey of Kylo Ren, through and through – she didn’t want to be reminded of that man.

“I thought I’d find you in here.”

It was Rose, coming from the passage into the grand palace beyond the hangar bay. She was carrying two glasses and a bottle and Rey could sense everything of her even from her space near the Royal Starship on her cargo containers. Rey was no stranger to alcohol, not by a long shot; while Master Luke had been estranged to it in his Jedi ways and his solace on Tatooine as a teenager, Rey had been offered many a bottle of swill and piss-tasting abhorrent things during her isolation on Jakku. Nothing of what she had tasted save for a single bottle of Alderaanian White salvaged from one rather indulgent officer’s quarters of wrecked Star Destroyer, had tasted any good. Surely the liquor on Naboo would have been finely collated and refined. 

“You’re not with Connix at the banquet with Queen Thetaan and Ryoo?” Rey called back, having to raise her voice a little to reach Rose from her position in the very middle of the hangar complex.

“No, it’s not really my thing – I’m just a glorified deck hand way out of her depth on one of the most gorgeous moons of the Mid Rim!” Rose called back, her decorum more than a little waned and eroded, Rey supposed she must have either had had a drink or two, or something of the like. She was walking faster and her tones were much louder than Rey. The former scavenger chuckled a little before the mechanic clambered to her on the cargo containers with the bottle and glasses in her hands. “I thought that I would...” she hiccupped as she sauntered to her knees before Rey. “I thought I’d bring you some of the fine booze that Thetaan has stockpiled here while the war rages in the Outer Rim... And, come to think of it, why is it always the Outer Rim?”

Rey had already taken a cup and was beginning to pour herself a serving while Rose hiccupped again – she was a lightweight but Rey could sense she wasn’t anywhere near fully inebriated just yet, moreover she seemed just happy to be away from the stronghold on Crait and in the company of the women everyone in the Resistance was talking about for now. The Jedi smiled, pouring another serving for Rose but then taking it for herself quickly. She had to catch up after all.

“Can you even drink if you’re a Jedi?” Rose was asking again. “I should have checked before I brought you the bottle, shouldn’t I? I’m so sorry...”

“Relax,” Rey breathed, her hand fawning for Rose’s exposed wrist and flashing her another guarded smile. “If drinking was against the Jedi Code then I shouldn’t have even gone to find Luke in the first place,” she chuckled, downing the second glass in a shot and pouring two more measures. This time she did hand Rose her serving. “Thanks for coming to find me.”

“I’m not interrupting you, am I?” Rose asked, now cautious and only just noticing how Rey’s legs were folded and how she must have been in deep thought about some form of Jedi business. “You were meditating weren’t you...”

“Yes but it’s alright.”

“Are you sure? I can just go and leave you the booze... I’m sure Threepio needs someone to talk the ear off given how Connix is busy with the Queen...”

“Rose...” Rey was chuckling, finding the mechanic’s compassion and gracious consideration for her more than charming. She really was adorable, almost too much for the Padawan to handle just yet. “Stay... I want you to stay...”

The mechanic clutched up her legs until they were folded like Rey’s and scooted closer to her, gingerly grasping at her glass of the Domaine de la Maison sur le Lac and sipping it save going over the edge as if she were actually drinking Port in a Storm. She could swear Rey flashed her a wink as she downed her helping in another quick gulp but Rose stayed her course and sipped with a strained slurp until she was done. The pair of them exhaled with a heave, and already Rey was taking the long and slender blue bottle that looked like a pillar of liquid sapphire and poured again.

“Okay... So you know your way around a bottle of hooch, that’s for sure...” Rose gasped, a little awkwardly as if she was nervous. Rey poured her own for her and handed to her – when their fingers graced a touch in the handoff, both of them looked deeply at each other, before Rey pulled the glass away and shuffled a little closer to the mechanic. Rose brushed some loose strands of her oily black hair behind her ears and blushed profusely, knowing there was no way the Jedi couldn’t see how flattered she was to be in her presence. “By the Force...” She whispered the curse.

“Something wrong?” Rey asked, putting both of the drinks down and reaching for her company’s wrist; Rose tried to retract her hand but the loaned reflexes of a would-be Jedi were far too much for her. Rey’s touch was arm and famous on the mechanic’s flesh and she trembled into holding her hand in no time.

“No, no not at all, nothing wrong, _stars_ ,” Rose babbled, her fingers jittering as Rey held her hand in her own and warmed up her grasp. “You’re really warm... and, damn I’m sorry...”

Rey was smiling, even chuckling still with how adorable and yet independent and able Rose looked in her new wayfarer ensemble. Her choice of Resistance fashion mirrored Poe Dameron’s when he wasn’t clad head to toe in his pilot’s regalia, and yet somehow the softness of the intrepid mechanic allowed to her carry the baggy shirt and utility pants with the bandoleer belt better. The lack of a neck scarf helped too. Her slicked and beautifully black hair (slightly darker than Rey’s own by a shade or two) in the two buns behind her ears was so innocent, downright childish, and yet Rey knew that Rose Tico could eat up and chew out a malcontent engineer in the Crait hangar louder and harsher than any of the high-ranking fighter jocks. She was made of tougher stuff than even Banthas or Wampas. Rose was considerate and compassionate, adorable and kind and all things sweet – Rey had seen her as such in her interludes at Crait when not training – and she was as fierce as any Resistance soldier with a blaster in his hands.

“You’re warm yourself, Rose... You’re skin is so soft for a mechanic, how do you do it?” Rey fawned, feeling the gentle texture of the woman’s fingers and amazed at how a girl who messed with engine parts and starfighter circuits could have fingers and palms that were so soft. “I couldn’t get my skin this soft even with years of help...”

Rose gasped in a breathy sigh. “Thanks...” she beamed, taking her hand back and continuing to blush. “Paige always makes fun of how soft my hands stay.”

“That’s your sister, right? Paige, the... um...”

“She’s a Y-Wing pilot, yeah. We both grew up on Hays Minor and she’s used to working with explosive and detonations charges so it seemed like a good bet once Lintra taught her to fly, so yeah...”

Rey was nodding the whole time, Rose’s pace of talking much faster and more nervous than her own but it only did more to amplify how adorable she was. And the Jedi could tell why now of all times Rose Tico was so nervous around her, not to do with whatever contents of the Domaine de la Maison sur le Lac she’d consumed before showing up. This was the first time that the pair had been alone with time on their hands – no doubt there would be no Kaydel, no Threepio, no Finn and no Poe to interrupt their meeting. Rey and Rose were simply alone in the Naboo Palace hangar with nearly a full bottle of a Core World wine at their disposal and no one needing them until the morning at the very earliest. War was raging between the First Order and the systems who had maintained the New Republic and, true, the Resistance also. But Rey thought to her notions as she had seen Naboo from orbit in the midday sun. There was certainly no war here, only the war they had brought with them, which was localised to the vague notions of a bad omen that Rey felt in her blaster pistol. Looking into Rose’s full and mellow dark eyes it was as if the whole galaxy had stopped still and within lay the answers she was looking for.

Inside of Rose Tico’s eyes lay no judgement, no remnant of sleeping with Captain Phasma during that terrible monsoon. It was just Rose, and the fondness she had for the famous Jedi, and she was really willing to make good on the intimate thoughts Rey could read in her mind.

“Did you... ever think of learning to fly?” Rey asked, her voice dragging at her heels as Rose continued to stare at her. The former scavenger downed her drink for courage, watching carefully as the mechanic did the same.

“I’m not much cut out for a career in a cockpit,” Rose confessed. “I’m better at fixing things; I’m really... I mean I’m pretty good at fixing things. Always... sort have been, y’know?”

“Yeah, I suppose I feel the same way,” the Padawan returned, recalling her sentence on Jakku. Nowadays that wall filled with little tally marks felt so far away. “How are you handling being on Crait?”

Rose swallowed a swift gulp and finishing it down to the bottom, she reached for the bottle as Rey did, their fingers meeting and touching around the body of the blue glass. Once again Rose was blushing uncontrollably as Rey cast it off in a cheeky smile, her cheeks full and graceful. Loose strands of her hair curled down the sides of her temples, her smaller bob of hair shaking around the back of her neck. To Rose, she somehow looked all the lovelier like this.

“It’s... It’s not bad. At least we have the hangar space that we didn’t on D’Qar,” the mechanic confessed, knowing the restrictions of isolation on the salt moon in the old repurposed Rebellion base. It wasn’t designed to be the main stronghold of the General’s forces, but it had thus far hidden them from the First Order – to Rey that was all that mattered while she was acting from Ach-To. “It’s much easier knowing you’re out there, training for us...”

That was noteworthy. Rey looked up from the bottle without pouring anything and eyed Rose rather seriously – no one had mentioned that before. They all considered her training for the Resistance? That she was learning to become a Jedi for them? To possibly lead them? Had she transformed into some form of leadership beacon for the whole Resistance while she wasn’t looking or paying attention to how it had developed and since moving to Crait?

“I...” Rey stammered.

“Sorry,” Rose swiftly rebuked. “I shouldn’t have mentioned it... I don’t want you feel pressured or anything.”

“No, it’s... No one has ever...”

“Messed up flirting with you this bad before because she didn’t actually think she would get the chance to be alone with you for this amount of time?” The mechanic shrugged, thinking she had failed. With a flippant tick of her lips and teeth, Rose turned her expression, gathering her half-full glass of wine in her lap and ruminating into its reflective swirls catching the low lighting of the hangar. “I don’t even know if you like women, let alone...”

Rey had gripped her right shoulder, was leaning over the crest of the cargo crate and turning Rose as much as she could. She pulled her a little too much – the glass of wine tipped from her hand and collided with the metal bulkhead flooring as the Jedi took her chance and blocked everything else from her mind. She kisses Rose with as much force as she could muster, reaching for her now free hands for her grasp and pulling her closer. Nothing else could stop her, nothing could block or interfere with how adorable and comforting the presence of Rose Tico was on her uneasy shoulders. Rey didn’t even need, nor want to think of anything else; simply kissing Rose was release enough for her clouded mind.

_The Force is an energy field connected by all living things..._ Rey heard in the back of her mind as Rose reacted to her luscious kiss. The mechanic had discarded any notion of holding a glass and had closed her eyes, reaching forward for the frills of Rey’s white cloth Jedi robes. She was holding them for dear life, kneeling and edging closer on the cargo create. _It surrounds us, it penetrates us, it binds the universe together..._ Rey heard again, feeling the Force around her, feeling all of Rose as she kissed her deeper.

She couldn’t help herself. Something swelled within her body, wanting her to kiss the mechanic again and again as they drifted closer. Rey’s fingers threaded through the loose fringe of Rose’s professionally kempt hair and she remembered flashes of the smaller woman looking for her in the menagerie of pilots and deck hands in the Crait hangar bay a handful of times. It seemed so natural to kiss her like this, to love kissing her – Rose’s taste was luscious, downright indulgent to the sensation and the feeling of her lips on Rey’s was something extraordinary. They way she winced to the touch, and yet how she reeled and let go of her body to meet the Jedi’s grasp. Everything spoke to Rey in a way a woman hadn’t before; nothing extreme or intense about their joining, but slow and sensual, as if Rey or the act of being intimate with her was what helped Rose to strive for more of her.

_You must_ unlearn _what you have learned... Luminous beings are we, not this crude matter. To be a Jedi is to face the truth, and choose – give off light, or darkness, Padawan. Be a candle, or the night._

Her hands gravitated to Rose’s jawline, Rey’s body shifting closer and casting away her own glass. It and the bottle of wine fell to the floor, barely any of it having an effect on either of them; they were each drinking in the energy of the other, and Rey found herself bathing in all Rose offered her. She could sense her so clearly, could sense everything so clearly but Rose more so than anything. On Takodana she had been shrouded and blinded by shadow and greed, the emotions of the Dark Side, but Rey could already determine that what she felt within Rose’s energy surrounding her, swarming them both, was the energy of the Ashla. It was as Master Luke had taught her. She could not get enough.

_You might say... we are encouraged to love..._

Rose’s hands did the same, cupping and holding around Rey’s shoulders and neck before she felt the loose strands of formerly stressed hair gracing the clutch of her reach. She gasped and breathed as they brokered a reprieve, gently panting both for air. Rey was first to open her eyes, amazed at what she had done and what had happened, Rose was still very much reach and in front of her, very much real.

“I think I answered your question...”

“Yeah,” Rose was softly panting, still holding Rey’s broad and athletic shoulders, falling totally in love with how toned they were as well as the rest of her agile body. “I, uh... I think you did... Stars...”

There was a beat, a brief pause in which Rey saw almost all of time coming to an elongated crawl around her. She considered the blaster, the bad vibes she was attaining from it in the Falcon, and then the uneasiness she’d felt when trying to meditate. Was all that merely over thinking the escapades on Takodana? Nothing felt so urgent anymore, nothing so intense and needing her attention or intervention, like all her worries had melted into the beautiful kiss with Rose Tico, and now Rey felt herself wanting more, certainly more. Rose was right before her, the cut of her shirt revealing the pathway into her torso, and Rey’s vision lingered. She felt lust, surely as Rose was feeling her shoulders. A banquet of the body – Rey wanted Rose, needed her now that the top had been blasted off like a mining explosive.

They had rooms in the palace, and night had certainly come creeping in – nothing was awaiting until the morning and Rey was smiling. She bit her lip looking at Rose, scanning her beautiful face and down along the lines of her cut collar into the shadows of her fully bust.

“I could... answer it a little better,” Rey alluded.

“What... What do you mean?” Rose was still half-panting, his face and neck flushed a bright pink; she knew what the Jedi was referring to, her hand coming to cup the mechanic’s cheek.

Gracefully, and with a softly air of dominance in the way she moved and leered a loving smile, Rey kissed Rose’s cheek again, little by little. Three short pecks with lingering lips dotted her way to the wayfarer’s ear and she bit her lip again. “Come back with me to the Palace?”

“You sure?” Rose retorted incredulously, her brow breaking out into sweat and her cheeks so red.

“I want to show you how _much_ I like women,” Rey teased, her tongue licking the front of her teeth and her lips glistening from the vestiges of the Domaine de la Maison sur le Lac. She really was playful now, the lust she felt for Rose consuming her thoughts as she took the change to cling to the mechanic’s inner thigh. Rose’s legs clasped tightly shut, but her sigh betrayed her as it circled into a creeping moan. “What do you think?”

Rose almost heaved right away. “Oh, I think I’d like that a lot...”

* * *

They were somewhat lucky it was a double bed; Rey was happy it had a mattress, let alone four posters or a thing veil curtain or pillows or a covering. Her cot in the AT-AT that made up her Jakku home was simply spare rags and a sack turned into some form of pillow with whatever she had that was soft for stuffing. Rose wasn’t much used to a bed as lavish as this one she lay on her back, but hadn’t suffered as bad as Rey on the desert planet. Hays Minor wasn’t as rough as the ship graveyard of Jakku, but was considerable better living conditions than a wrecked walker. Still, the expansive mattress under her naked back carried Rose to a world of comfort.

She wanted to cover her chest, to obscure her bodice away from Rey at the foot of her bed, her body curled up a little as she kissed her way down Rose’s legs. From ankles to knee and down further, littering her fluttering lips all way down the mechanic’s inner thigh, gripping her gently and making her blush more than in the hangar. They were both totally sobered up, no traces of the effect of the wine on either of them and Rey much preferred it, totally aware of each sensation her touch triggered within Rose. She was reaching out with the Force and could feel everything around her more than she had on the plateau on Ach-To. Rose inspired in her a greater degree of divination.

“Are you ready?” Rey whispered, her lips curled into the biggest smile. More than anything she was excited, elated to show off a little for Rose as she covered her face in anxious anticipation.

“Because that doesn’t sound ominous in any way,” she was beaming, her arms wrapped around her eyes.

“Relax...”

Rey once again reached out with the Force, an extension of her already experienced fingers pressing to Rose’s body. Both of the Jedi’s hands reached around the mechanic’s legs for presence as she planted more and more kisses down her naked thighs. Gradually so but definitely they were encroaching downward as Rey’s thoughts disembarked from her own mind and began to infect her partner. The third hand stroked down the length of Rose’s beautifully tummy and over her navel. From her perspective above, suddenly the feeling of three hands groping and sensually dragging down her body was more than a little suspicious but then she was so suddenly silenced when Rey’s tracing with the Force reached below her mound and encountered the soft fur of her bush.

She felt embarrassed, conscious of her pelt and its thickness, but Rey soothed her with another beautiful kiss on the inner flesh of her thigh. “Hush, you look beautiful from where I’m laying...” she was whispering softly.

“I,” Rose gasped, her face strained. The feeling of an invisible something gently passing through her bush made her ticklish, even smiling as if it was basking in her lower hair. Rey’s senses reached out with the Force again, taken to her lover’s vexed emotions and she healed them with her mind. “Thank you, Rey,” Rose simply sighed melodically.

“I mean it, Rose,” Rey firmly reminded her, kissing her again but not on her thighs. She’d leaned upward and kissed the area of her mound right before the pelt of hair and smiled as she did it. “You look gorgeous.”

Rose was blushing – both in her cheeks and in her mind. Rey was totally aware of everything she felt, bonding her senses to the mechanics as she prepared to make her moan. Her sex had blossomed before the Padawan, Rose’s legs parting at her guidance when they threatened to close again in the opened air. With a flick of her wrists, Rey reached out again, an extending touch from her lavish fingertips and the curtains of the bed frame fell and secluded them in serene privacy. Rey’s touch landed in Rose’s bush, her lips lowering closer to her folds. They parted for her presence, Rose’s breath so audible on the wind. She was already panting and it made Rey’s eyes dilate slightly; her vision widened and her eyebrows crooked into a rather selfish expression. She wanted and was certainly going to enjoy this.

She lowered her lips to Rose’s, taking a hearty kiss to the center of her lover’s entrance and the mechanic cried with an extravagant moan in response. It was already euphoria to Rey, devious Rey. She took a hand back from her lover’s legs and it sauntered down between her own. She buried her fingers within herself, waiting as Rose let loose another moan as she licked. The Jedi smirked in contact with Rose’s entrance, licking a clean swipe up her length and tantalising her clitoris. With the faculties of a keen mind, Rey took up her phantom touch again, duplicating it and finding two targets for her trickery of the Force – one took up position pressed into her own pearl, making her legs tremble a little as she sheathed her fingers deeper into her entrance, while the second touch found Rose’s hood and the clit within. When pressed to her beading flesh, Rose sharply cried out.

“Rey!” She screamed, louder than expected – she was like a crystal fennec hearing the chimes of its coat for the first time. Rose sounded like a Skyhopper soaring through the sky on a maiden flight, certainly the most melodic moan Rey had heard. She needed more.

The invisible gloves came off in a moment; Rey gripped the soft supple of Rose’s thigh and began to lick and taste her way through her sex, teasing her entrance with the tip of an experienced tongue. Blissful fervour washed over the Jedi with Rose totally compliant to let her have her way with her beautiful lust. The mechanic couldn’t control herself with Rey so eager to pleasure her too, rising desire gripped at her feet while Rey held her legs, still fingering her own pleasure while delivering on promised euphoria. Rey’s devotion was liquid lust, spreading Rose’s building wetness among and between her lower lips, sodden now with ecstasy and passing up into her fur. With the phantom touch pinning down upon her clitoris, Rose was awake with sensation, like a rising temperature gauge on a Hyperdrive, pulsing fuel throughout her body. Her lover’s technique was impeccable and telling of so much more experience than Rose knew she possessed.

In Rey’s mind there were still lessons in the way she moved her tongue over her partner’s darling sex, feeling it begging for her to taste her more. The texture of Rose’s essence, her wetness on the Padawan’s tongue was simply delectable – Shara Bey would be proud at how she taught the former scavenger. The moment Poe Dameron found out Rey learned of truly pleasing women like this was the moment the Resistance faced its hardest battle.

Rose was still breathless above Rey, her fingers trickling down her front as she finally felt confident enough to bask in her rugged desire. Her sex was certainly enjoying Rey’s attention, the dedication of a trashy mouth, it was about time the upper body of its owner partook as well. With one hand Rose was gripping her own larger breasts, holding herself in ecstasy as Rey licked her well of all sweet delicacy. And at the same time her freehand gravitated towards her lover’s crown, and fingers were soon threading into fraying curls and holding. Subtle direction soon communed with Rey’s mind and her lips – the Jedi smiled as her partner took only a little ownership in her pleasure.

“Where... where in the galaxy did you learn _that_ manoeuvre?” Rose gasped, the cusp of a moan in her throat.

Rey repeated, fulfilling the trick of her tongue once more in a sort of corkscrew motion deep within the swell of Rose’s entrance, feeling the much warmer canal into her core. A fresh dollop of wetness smeared across Rey’s lips, her partner panting from another moan as she lapped her up.

“You really wouldn’t believe me if I told you,” Rey chuckled, kissing her lover’s sex at the clit. Her nose graced Rose’s sweet bush and the mechanic seized. The Jedi was right there to calm her down, trying to fill her with more confidence of her body than maybe she was used to. But it worked – Rose was once again calling her name when Rey cooed and took the pearl from its hood and between her lips.

The flick of Rey’s sensual and attuned tongue across the head of Rose’s womanhood almost made her scream. Her sharper screeching of Rey’s namesake had her legs closing around the Jedi’s head. Indulgently she let it happen, too busy providing pleasure to protest how intense Rose was feeling it.

Still three fingers deep into her own folds, spreading her honey and nectar around her smooth mound, Rey hummed around Rose’s clit, a vibing sensation that only exacerbated things. The mechanic was already about to explode from the pleasure. Her toes were writhing, finding rest down Rey’s muscular back as she clasped the pilot in the crook of her closed thighs. Rey still didn’t stop; what she had now started by devouring her lover’s pearl she demanded to see the fruits of. Her fingers left Rose’s thigh and found her entrance a suitable replacement. The mechanic’s breath stabbed into her chest, hitching like a firing proton torpedo as she felt the incredible sensation of penetration. Rey was inside of her, more now with her fingers than with her tongue before and Rose was still riding with the shock it had forced upon her. Yet she was dying for it and more; she couldn’t stop calling out Rey’s name.

“I’m close...” she breathed before long, Rey’s tongue till flitting across her clit and drumming up a pathway to climax so clear and in sight.

Rose leaned back, Rey’s hand still wet but reaching up and gently holding her bosom or at least attempting to. Fingers still in her lover’s hair, Rose wanted to force her deeper into her folds, to taste her all the way in but crumbled under the weight of anxiety. Rey must have read her mind, altering the course of her flippant tongue and mouth and returning to the slit of her desire. She lapped at Rose’s wetness once again, drinking all she could like a fountain. When Rey’s tongue finally did as her fingers had before, Rose knew she couldn’t hold on.

“Rey! I’m coming! I’m coming!” She breathlessly cried.

The Jedi’s hand darted down between her own legs and flickered all she could. Her spine arched before nothing arrived in the droves as Rose – she was reaching for the skies as Rey continued to plant kisses on her lust, driving her crazier and into a frenzy of orgasm. She was arriving at lightspeed.

As Rose did, Rey felt a twist in her stomach, an invasion of her mind. The serenity of sex with Rose shattered like a window pane before her and she was prisoner between Rose’s legs. Eventually her lover calmed, opening her body and moving to sit up as Rey lifted herself off of the bed. She was halfway between two entirely different worlds – she felt Rose and her euphoria still riding in the Nubian clouds the tranquil ecstasy of orgasm, and then in the corners, Rey could feel the dread she had done when touching her blaster. Something was wrong, definitely wrong and in a big way.

No, worse than wrong, catastrophic.

“Rey? Rey..?” Rose was asking, brushing her hair out of her face as the Jedi was crawling on high legs like a feline at the foot of the bed.

Her thoughts severed from Rose and Rey was drifting in a mental purgatory for some seconds as her senses reached beyond the room. She stood up and reached for one of the dressing robes the room had already provided, without saying a word to her lover. “Rey, what’s wrong?” Rose continued to ask, reaching out to deaf ears.

The Jedi’s faculties were embroiled within the knotting net of the Force; her feelings turned to a sticky web and a foul sweat crept across her brow as Rey walked slowly and quietly for her utility belt dropped on the floor. Rose called her name once more when she saw her partner reach for and pull out the shimmering chromium hilt of the lightsaber of Anakin Skywalker as quiet as a tomb.

“Stay right there, okay?” Rey whispered; Rose nodded as she slowly slithered under the covers of the bedding. As Rey had done, she reached for her belt on the floor beside her and held her pistol as some sound came a little close. “Do you hear that?” Rey asked her.

“Yeah... Yeah I do.”

“I’m going to check it out...”

There was no time to do so – the door turned a million splinters as a body came flying through it with the force of a raging Reek. Rey had less than a second to react, igniting her lightsaber a vibrant and blinding blue that illuminated the whole room in righteous light. The body fell upon her, black and shadowed and wearing a mask with ferocious fervour. Rey’s heart almost detonated as she saw a flash of the curved helm in the afterglow of her lightsaber.

_It’s Kylo Ren_...

She wanted to scream but there was no time at all. Her assailant had a weapon in hand but no lightsaber, he was grunting against her body as fell on her, tackling her to her knees and looming over her. Rose screamed her partner’s name in a terrified shriek. The assassin kicked Rey directly in the face, her lightsaber falling from her hands and deactivating at the same moment Rose fired her blaster pistol. The darkness gave the assassin the perfect cover, letting his dodge down below the bolt as it hit the wall. Rey rolled across the floor, landing on her lightsaber and clambering to her feet.

Before she could press it alight, again the rogue found her in the darkness. He was on her again, the blunt end of his weapon hitting her in the gut (she could only assume it was the hilt of his crossguard lightsaber). She refused to be kept down as Rose fired her blaster again at the rogue but couldn’t hit him. Rey reeled back and found her resolve as the man’s kick came her way – with a flourish of the Force at the end of her fingers she deflected, ruining his footing and his balance. Rose shot at him once again to no avail, flying over the bed almost as the assassin regained his position.

Anakin’s lightsaber ignited again, bathing the room in blue light and put Rey eye to eye with her attacker – it was not Ren, but merely an imitation. This was one of the Knights of Ren; Leia had cautioned her to their presence and now she was face to face with one of their enigmatic members.

“Scavenger scum!” He heckled her.

There was no time to debate it in her mind as he fell on her again with a vibroscythe cleaving over his shoulders. With Rey fully in control of her emotions and her body, there was no contest.

She sidestepped his flailing blow, forcing it to land embedded in the carpet on the floor. He left it there, swinging his fist with a groaning heave – suddenly Rey had been here before. In her mind’s eye it was Ren, and this wasn’t Naboo, it was Starkiller Base. The hate was flowing through her and she could feel nothing but regardless anger towards the beaten and broken Dark Jedi as he stumbled from her blow. She didn’t care then, and she didn’t care now; it could or couldn’t have been Kylo himself, Rey wasn’t caring. All she could think about was that man’s naked face. It was the face that she had seen trick Han Solo and stab him with a blistering lightsaber. Chewbacca’s fierce cry haunted her mind as she circled the Knight of Ren, confusing him for his leader.

There was to be no mercy for any of them.

Rey twirled the blue lightsaber in her grasp and plunged it deep into the assassin’s back, skewered him where he stood before he could react to her. He cried out a harsh and deathly bellow from the bottom of his lungs as she pulled out the blade and let him fall to the floor. The Knight of Ren was dead before he landed and the fight was over.

She was left empty, deactivating the lightsaber as the lights came on and illuminated the room – Rey fell to her knees and dropped the hilt to the floor and let it roll. A crowd of footsteps came running down the corridor to the missing door, of which Rey could read already Connix, Ryoo Naberrie, the rolling momentum of Beebeeate and what could have been anywhere between two and a dozen of Theed Royal Guards.

The worried warbles of Beebeeate grounded her before Rose fell on her with terrified pants and wrapping arms.

“Secure the palace and wake everyone in the barracks,” Rey could hear Queen Thetaan telling her coterie. “I want to know how an assassin got passed you, Captain.” To Rey now it didn’t matter – the Knight of Ren was already dead, and there could only be one person who had sent him.


	3. Connix

The following morning hit like a frothing Nexu hungry for Rey’s blood and bones. What seemed like thousands of armed guards rolled into the central chambers of the Theed Palace and ousted the summit committee from the grounds. Boss Futh, the Gungan leader, was told to remain in his city under the swamps and not to make the journey up to the surface and to the capital city. Rose hinged at Rey’s side for the most part of the early morning but was soon dragged from her company by the captain of the royal contingent.

Rey, alone and wanting no part in going over the assassination attempt on her retreated to the upper echelons of the palace with the permission of Queen Thetaan. Once her questioning was concluded in the upper throne room she traipsed through the windowed corridors, the view of the expansive plains and ridge almost soiled by the intrusion in the night. She had really thought it was Kylo Ren when he first came crashing through the door – the way it had shattered to splinters like it was nothing, and even the scorch marks she had seen on the sand and emerald green marble had shocked her to the core. Theed had seemed so perfectly beautiful in the morning and afternoon, only to become compromised to both the Jedi and her lovely Rose before the next daybreak.

After traversing what felt like a labyrinthine majority of the upper floors of the palace, Rey soon found an opening near the very topmost observation tower. She could sense the opened air at the cool heights of Theed. What awaited her was an expansive view that could seemingly view all the way across the opened right and plains she had seen on approach in the _Millennium Falcon_.

The sun set the sky almost ablaze in a golden sapphire that pierced her vision when finding the balcony. For a spot so high up in the palace rafters, the cool breeze was surprisingly the only cold element to the locale. The opened sky was warm on her skin, still somewhat more exposed than usual (she hadn’t gotten fully dressed and stood in the opened air clad in merely some of her newer Jakku-style coverings) with her shoulders naked and her stomach out. Her pants were as baggy as they had been on Jakku but thoroughly less filled with sand; Rey remembered once meeting the experienced A-Wing Ace, Shara Bey, and griping about the state of her clothes into the colder nights. She still hadn’t told Poe about that encounter, and probably never would even if he asked her – she was not one to kiss an older woman and tell, or a younger one. 

Chirping birds and other fauna became quiet tunes in the backdrop of the opened sky with the earth so much further below her but Rey could still sense something whirling behind the tower as she stood with her legs parted. She closed her eyes and opened her mind as Master Luke had instructed. This location felt so close to the cliff rock on the Temple Island on Ach-To and she could imagine her Jedi mentor sitting with his legs folded and his mind reaching out the farthest reaches of the galaxy.

If she concentrated well enough, Rey knew she could reach out and touch his mind with her own. HE should know about the Knight of Ren in the night.

A while passed without much of anything – her senses were frayed at the ends, like the split ends of her unkempt hair. She hadn’t bothered to fix that either, like the rest of her outfit, and thus Rey’s slick locks draped down her semi-naked back. The Padawan attempted to reach out further with her senses, feeling the soft brush of wind against her naked shoulders and lower abdomen.

The sounds of the waterfalls calmed her frantic nerves, and little by little Rey could feel herself falling down the cliffs with them. She sensed the water turning into rivers and streams on the plains. All of the different flora she hadn’t met yet came into the centre of her mind, along with the birds and other creatures she could hear in the mezzanine which Theed had become. She could feel them through the Force, the will of the celestial phenomenon coming to become an extension of her body.

Master Luke had told her once, the first teaching he had given to her, that the Force was an energy field created by all living things. She let the Force surround her, bind her to the universe and listened intently to what it could be saying to her.

“You’re getting better, that’s for sure...” the voice of Luke Skywalker came calling to her in the chambers of her mind.

“Something has happened, Master,” Rey began to tell him.

“I know, Rey,” Luke stopped her immediately. “One of Kylo Ren’s knights has found you on Naboo, hasn’t he? He tried to kill you in the night, and you mistook him for Kylo himself, right?”

She breathed, her eyes clamped shut and trying to maintain her focus on her far away Master. Rey would make it back to Ach-To before more of the Knights of Ren could find her but she needed to consult with her mentor first. “It all was happening so fast, Master, I almost couldn’t control myself.”

Rey felt Skywalker’s fatherly touch close to her mind, feeling him calming her all the way from the Temple Island as best he could. The touch of her tutor in her head felt so similar to being around Han, from Jakku to Takodana and even on Starkiller Base. Luke and Han were much the same, as was the General – she hoped one day to have the honour of calling her simply Leia.

“Calm yourself, Rey,” Luke told her.

“I was so scared, Master Skywalker.”

She could sense him breathing in time with her. “Master Yoda once told me all about fear, Padawan – he would say as I have said; that fear is a path to the Dark Side. He would say that fear leads to anger, a fear of the unknown, and that anger would lead to contempt, to passion, to a hatred of what you fear and are angered by...”

“I _was_ scared... Scared that Kylo had found me so easily after what happened on Starkiller... If he could find me, he could find our friends just as easily, and the Resistance would be compromised,” she expressed, maintaining never to think about the stronghold itself. Neither of them did, and no Resistance operatives would ever speak of its location to one another. If Crait was ever spoken or thought about aloud or through the Force, it could be intercepted and the Resistance would be discovered by either Kylo Ren or Snoke himself.

Once again she felt Luke calming her emotions through the Force, not even chastising her for given them the amount of credence and leeway she did. Emotions were a powerful thing, but Luke knew as she did that they could be a tool for their benefit. Skywalker recognised that his attachments were not to be damned or forsaken, and would not expect Rey to do the same of hers. If Luke could use his compassion and feelings for his sister and his friends, Rey could do the same for her lovers, for her found family.

“You confronted your assassin, apprentice,” she could hear Luke reaffirming to her, as if he had been there following her sleeping with Rose. “You took charge and used the Force as your ally to overcome this challenge and you emerged victorious, Rey.”

“I killed the Knight, Master...”

Luke paused, sensing her grief and regret. Those very same emotions had been knotted over her killing of the Knight and how little she had hesitated in doing it. That was still because of Kylo Ren and the disdain she still had for him for killing Han Solo. “I didn’t hesitate in doing it either... He came at me, Rose tried to shoot him to protect me but couldn’t... He stumbled and I just,” she was shaking as she clenched her fists and thought of the moment. His vibroscythe had impaled the flooring and he was stuck as she held a position of strength over him. It had been as if she was watching Kylo Ren stumble after she’d slashed and stabbed at his torso and legs, already injured from Chewbacca shooting him with the full force of his powerful Bowcaster. “It felt like duelling Kylo Ren again, and I couldn’t control myself... I just killed the Knight without waiting.”

“Rey... Calm your mind. You know the first lessons; you’ve heard the voices of those masters who have come before you.”

“Master Yoda, and Master Kenobi, yes, I still hear them.”

“They speak to _you_ Rey. Listen to their wisdom and to the Force,” Luke continued to teach her, still speaking at least in half-riddles like all of the voices of Jedi past she could hear. “How a Jedi chooses to win, the question is...” He repeated to her, almost sounding like the voice she knew to be Master Yoda. She had never seen the wizened late Jedi Grandmaster, but she knew Luke and Leia both had. She hoped one day she could see him and Master Obi-Wan Kenobi.

“Master?” She could sense Luke’s humming go ahead. “How will I truly know the Light Side from the Dark?”

Luke breathed. “You’ll know it, Rey... In those times when you find your calm, when you’re at peace... And you’ll find that often times they become one and the same.”

“But... but they’re different, totally different sides of the same living Force.”

“You may think they are, Rey – but they aren’t different. We each have them both inside of us; we each draw on them both; the Light Side and the Dark Side, even the Bendu. They’re only different in your mind. Remember that a Jedi’s strength flows from the Force. The Dark Side is hard to resist, it’s more seductive, easier to consume us.”

“Then why...”

“There is no why, apprentice. You must _unlearn_ what you have learned, Rey. Do not dwell on your actions in the night. If you do, the fear will lead to anger again and you’ll dwell on Kylo Ren. Clear your mind of questions, my Padawan. Return when your mission on Naboo is over.”

“But how can I resolve the council summit? Theed is compromised and both the Queen and Gungan Boss would rather call an end to it than meet,” Rey asked, begging for her tutor’s insight. Luke lingered in her mind still, his teachings her lifeline.

“Leia... Our mother was born on Naboo; she was Queen too, like Taine Thetaan,” he informed her, Rey remembering what Kaydel had told her before about Padmé Amidala. “There is more than one capital city on the planet, like there is more than one sentient species that had say in its place in the Republic Senate. Naboo respects its youth a great deal – perhaps your answer lies in things about the planet one might not choose to see at face value...”

With that, her Master’s presence left her, and Rey found herself alone with the Force and her thoughts again on the highest balcony in Theed. She had her answers already, with Luke’s guidance, but the thoughts of killing Kylo’s assassin still weighed on her mind and on her shoulders. She could sense her own vexation through her body, and tried to calm herself as Luke had done. It would have been easier to do on Ach-To, even with the flocks and nests of Porgs surrounding her every moment outside of a hut. Rey was deeply worried for Rose, and what effect the assassin’s intrusion would have on her going forward – to be interrupted after intimacy was something profane, but to face death was another harrowing experience, and not one Rey could think Rose must have had to deal with yet. Then her mind turned back to Kylo once more.

He was out there still. She could in some small part sense him on the bridge of the _Finalizer_ , his Star Destroyer at the command of his Supreme Leader Snoke, and evidently still scouring the galaxy for her location. Their rematch would come soon enough.

For now, Rey suddenly sensed Connix behind her, her footsteps a little audible on the staircase even over the flippant breeze and sounds of birds. She came to the archway leading outside and Rey could sense her trying to say something, but she refrained and turned around – she didn’t want to disturb the Resistance’s only Jedi.

“Don’t go,” Rey told her.

“I didn’t want to disturb you,” Kaydel spoke softly, a polar display from how she had been in the Falcon. “You looked like you were meditating so I didn’t want to interrupt.”

“It’s okay,” Rey smiled a little, opening her eyes and seeing the far away hill range. “Your presence is soothing, actually...”

“Oh,” Connix gently blushed a little. “Captain Pantalla asked me to come tell you that they’ve found the entryway the assassin used in the night, as well as how they even found out we were on Naboo in the first place.”

“The First Order didn’t learn about the summit?”

“No,” Connix continued, her hand gracefully draping the marble archway. “The guards found a small Probe Droid trying to blend in on the cliffs. They’re thinking it’s been here for some time, trying to gauge if we’d reach out to Naboo at all. As soon as it must’ve detected the Falcon it sent word to whatever forces are closest to the system...”

“And then to either Snoke or Ren,” Rey finished for her.

“Yeah... I’m guessing Ren knew you’d be aboard the Falcon this time somehow.”

“But,” the notions were already playing out in Rey’s mind. Why did the Falcon have to be ferrying her to Naboo and not Leia or someone else? The First Order would surely know she was flying _Black One_ at this point, which was why they had taken the _Millennium Falcon_ rather than something else. If he was searching for her, he would expect Poe’s former X-Wing. Unless Rey was assuming the wrong facts entirely. “They don’t know I’m flying Poe’s X-Wing...” She told Connix. Phasma hadn’t spoken about Takodana. She hadn’t told Kylo Ren or General Hux that Rey was flying a black covered T-70 X-Wing and the Dark Jedi had assumed and stumbled into a correct.

“Is Rose okay?” Rey asked next, forgetting about the ships and the assassin entirely.

“She’s fine... Worried about you... Ryoo is preparing to call off the summit so we can leave in a couple of hours most likely.”

“We can’t leave,” Rey told her matter-of-factly. “And Ryoo can’t call off the summit.”

“But Theed isn’t secure, the Captain already gave his report, and the First Order could just send another assassin, or a whole Star Destroyer once they don’t hear back from that Knight you killed last night,” Connix protested.

“Theed isn’t secure,” Rey agreed, knowing she had to put her trust an faith into Connix, and that Connix would need to do the same for her. They hadn’t spoken or interacted much before this mission, and this was the first real time they had been assigned together since Rey had agreed to become a fully-fledged Resistance operative in tandem with her Jedi training. But she was now keen for the younger and capable fledgling diplomat. “But Otoh Gunga is,” she told her new associate. “Naboo has more than one capital city, and this summit has more than one race vying for Resistance aid and membership.”

Connix thought about it for a second or two but was already shaking her head. “Impossible,” she said flatly. “Otoh Gunga is the Gungans’ largest settlement and underneath the surface. It’s not just in the swamplands – the tree-like is thicker in that region of the planet and the city spans for miles. The main council’s chamber is underneath solid earth and ground. We’ll struggle to relay a secure signal back to the General to patch her through...”

Rey was smiling, her faith fully with Kaydel. “We don’t need the General to negotiate for the Resistance,

“Del, _you_ can do it.”

“Me?” Kaydel almost shrieked. “I don’t have the authority to set the terms for our organisation, or the political weight to give the Gungans or the Queen what they want. And besides,” she added. “The Queen doesn’t currently have the permission to use Otoh Gunga as sovereign territory for the use of treaties. _And_ there’s nowhere left on the planet that counts as neutral territory either that both side can use; it either comes under Nubian law, or Gungan law.”

“I thought the Gungans and the Queen had a treaty that allowed them to share, and to use each other’s capital for the use of political negotiations if needed,” Rey asked.

“In the times of Queen Amidala maybe, but not since the fall of the Empire...”

Then another idea struck Rey, looking down at the smaller Connix still fierce with her own importance even if she was not sold on the idea of negotiating for the whole of the Resistance. “You know everything about this planet.”

“Not everything exactly...”

“No, but you know everything that’s relevant to what’s going on,” Rey reminded her. “You’re the adopted daughter of the General, Del... And we have Threepio with us too! If you could persuade each side to act like Padmé Amidala did during the Clone Wars, or even before, I know they’ll fall in line for you...”

“And what if they don’t?”

Rey’s hands landed on either of Connix’s shoulders, her eyes wide and determined, her smile even more so. All in all Rey had transfixed Kaydel’s attention now – from her faith in the young surrogate of Leia, to how she had immediately started to call her by the shorter ‘Del’. No one even called her that. The closest she had come to a nickname with that much enthusiasm by her peers was Poe, the person she was closest to in the Resistance save for the General herself. All he referred to her as was her last name, and the General called her by her birth name. Only Rey had made the effort now, trying to inspire her.

This was not the effect a Jedi had on people (which was profound and magical enough from what Kaydel had read and learned), but this was the effect that Rey had her friends. No wonder Rose Tico had already fallen into bed with her after a few weeks of knowing and becoming hopelessly attracted to her.

“We make them, Del... You’re going to make them; because they need us, and we need them too.”

* * *

“Are you sure you don’t want to ride with us down to Otoh Gunga?” Rose asked as they reached the docks to the canal. The Queen and her coterie had already departed in one of the royal craft with Ryoo Naberrie and Threepio in tow. Another submersible had been prepared for Beebeeate, Connix (who had changed into a gifted set of more regal regalia for her latest duty to the Resistance), Chewbacca, Rose and some more of the Royal Guard. Theed was still on high alert even with the new plan taking steady shape. Rey smiled and tilted her head in a negative. She was fully dressed now in her Jedi robes and looked all the better for it. She was also much calmer than she had been in the morning as the late afternoon crept in from the south. The wind had picked up just as the parties were leaving Theed.

“I could use the swim if I’m being honest. I’ve only been a couple of times now, and that swamp is definitely calling my name...”

“Have I... Have I messed up... With last night?” Rose asked, her face almost looking like she’d cry.

Rey immediately crossed the gap between them with everyone in the submersible apart from Kaydel looking as the Jedi took the mechanic’s cheek and jaw into her grasp gently but powerfully. She kissed Rose softly on her lips and knocked their foreheads together in a rather touching display. “Does that answer your question?”

“I guess it does...” Rose whispered, holding Rey’s wrists in her gloved hands. “Just... Don’t treat this like a podrace or something... I’m not all that comfortable with lightspeed when I’m outside of a ship,” she semi-joked in a hyperbolic jest. But Rey understood exactly what she meant. Emotions were a powerful thing, and Rey had moved faster than a B-Wing at attack speed across the bow of a capital ship.

“Messaged received and understood, Lieutenant Tico.”

Rose chuckled at that, letting Rey kiss her again before parting. Two Nubian N-1s soared overhead as the mechanic reeled back and took her place in the smaller submersible. Rey looked at the tails of their J-Type thrusters and watched them disappear into the billowing clouds before waving to Rose through the shielding of the submersible’s roof. Slowly but surely it powered up its motivators and sank beneath the brim of the canal’s water flow. She would see them all again in the bubble city of Otoh Gunga. Her entry point was not through the canals of Theed – it would take days to swim to the Gungan city that way. Rey’s transport was a smaller and even more lightly armoured N-1 craft with a smaller tail and smaller J-Types waiting in the water. She embarked into the tight cockpit and sealed in the canopy, powering up the thrusters. The quickest entry point to Otoh Gunga was the one in the main swampland itself, deep within the plains some distance away. Her guide would be waiting there for her – she had been told by Boss Futh himself that the Gungan was a legend among his people.

The journey took even less time than she had thought, and Rey found the clearing with little difficulty – setting down the yellow and chromium N-S Starfighter, she spied the gangly form of a much older-looking Gungan revealing himself from the swamp thicket. He waved at her with a spindly yet still athletic arm as she disembarked from the fighter. “Good afternoon... You must be my guide to the city, right?”

“Oh yessa!” The Gungan confirmed in something of an annoying form of the natives’ speech. His bill-like mouth was floppy, even flabby but not more than Boss Futh’s had been in the hologram transmissions. Rey couldn’t get a read on the Gungan. “Meesa be the one ta take yoosa to Otoh Gunga! Weesa get there in tah good timing yah!”

“I hope so, but I’m looking forward to the swim.”

“Aye yah! Issa good swim to Gunga City... yoosa Jedi yah? Boss Futh told meesa to expec another Jedi!”

“Oh, yes. I’m Rey,” she introduced, checking her lightsaber was clamped onto her belt and extending her hand to shake the Gungan’s. “You’ve... met a Jedi before?”

“A-ha, was loooong times ago yah... Met tha two Jedi... Jar Jar Binks meesa called. Jar Jar Binks atta your service.”

Something about the creature’s name rang to something afoul in the depths of Rey’s being – from the moment she heard his name a grueling and sinister feeling made the hairs on the back of her neck and under the wraps of her forearms stand on end. But it only lasted for a second and until after she was done shaking his rubbery hand. Everything settled after that, and they traversed into the dense lushness of the jungle-like swampland.

The marsh was soft under her shoe-like boots, mildly filling them up with mossy water and soiling her toes. It would be fine in Otoh Gunga, she had been assured full room and board with the rest of her companions as the negotiations and talks would not take place until the next day. And this time Rey was not fearful that another assassin would find his way to her. Boss Futh had boasted that extra security precautions would be taken to ensure the safety of both the Jedi and the Nubian Queen, yet the Gungans had always maintained a high level of security for their underwater sanctuary according to Connix. Jar Jar led Rey deeper into the marsh until they came to a slow slope and the eventually to an embankment than sank into the lip of a small lake. It was more like an outcropping, with the swamp encroaching from all around. Looking up into the lines of the trees and upper brush, Rey could tell that no one could find this area from the air – it was perfectly secluded to hide the Gungans’ entry to their secret city.

“Are we here?” She asked, reaching for her utility belt and the rebreather the palace had provided her for her to make the journey underwater.

“A-ha. Weesa goin in tha water. An yoosa gonna love Gunga City, Rey.”

She was smiling at how he was speaking now; there was something innocently childish about his dialect even given how old the Gungan was. “I’m really looking forward to seeing it up close.” Before she had even stopped speaking, Jar Jar had leaped extremely high into the air, twirling and spinning until he crashed into the small cove with a thunderous splash. She chuckled and shook her head when his bobbed up again to smile at her.

Rey placed the rebreather securely and fixed into her mouth and formed a seal around it with her lips and teeth until she felt the air hitting the back of her throat like normal. She trudged some ways into the shallow water until she was in it up to her bosom. With a pounce she was under and following her Gungan guide closely as he led the way – his kicking swim was natural, and he smiled as she kept pace with him, her eyes stinging a little from contact with the water but nothing strenuous. Already she could see a light source far off in the distance. In pace with one another, both Gungan and Jedi waded into the depths, continuing to head deeper and deeper down into the ocean under the surface of Naboo. The lights began to get brighter the more they swam.

Rey spotted a small school of alien fish, their numbers small and their pace quickening once they saw her. She found herself returning to the awe she felt when seeing Takodana for the first time in the cockpit of the Falcon with Han Solo at her side. There was still so much of the galaxy she was experiencing for the first time and through she was finding peace and excitement at every new turn – they were only fish and yet they were something she saw for the first time. Like the Gungans in general, like the whole of Naboo from Theed to the swamplands. All of it was new.

But nothing compared to the enormous sight of Otoh Gunga coming into her view over the horizon of a bank. She was awestruck under the water. It looked like one massive field of bubbles made almost entirely of light as she and Jar Jar Binks approached the Gungan Capital. She could only imagine what the inside of it looked like; and what Rose Tico was thinking of it too.


	4. Otoh Gunga

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I think given the nice response to the inclusion of the First Order and the Knights of Ren in this, and given that I really want to do it - the next fic in the series will be a long oneshot aboard the Finalizer with Phasma, Kylo and Hux directly following Chapter 2 of this fic, where Kylo will learn of the failure of his assassination attempt...
> 
> And then he'll fuck Hux in a dub-con scenario while Phasma listens from outside and doesn't stop either of them. 
> 
> ALSO I'M GOING TO DECLARE RN THAT PHASMA IS FULCRUM!

“Weesa no impressed by what has happened uppa there wit tha Naboo...” Boss Futh said for what must have been the sixth time, much to chagrin of both Rey and Connix. The Jedi had almost been forced to take the centre with the General’s surrogate by both the Queen and Ryoo Naberrie (who had finally chosen to side with the Resistance’s camp on further behalf of Leia in her absence). The droids were not allowed in the council chamber, but Connix had done her upmost and had forced the Gungans to allow Threepio entry to act as a clearer go between.

“Ah, yes, so you have expressed multiple times now, Your Grace, oh great Boss Futh,” the protocol droid did his best to smoothen before Connix stood up again from the Resistance bench and walked to the central podium in view of the whole Gungan Elder Council. Queen Thetaan had been permitted to engage in the summit as an equal and of the same high status as the Gungans but was not allowed to sit with them for the duration of the talks. “Might I present Councillor Kaydel Ko Connix of the Resistance, who will speak further on the behalf of General Leia Organa.”

“The Bombad General Organa does not speak for yoosa?”Futh asked with great seriousness in his phlegm-filled throat. “Tha Naboo told tha Gungans the Bombad General from Resistance would speak for yoosa.”

He looked to Queen Thetaan at this, sensing a trickery that would rob him the honour of speaking to the daughter of Naboo’s arguably most successful Queen. During her reign Amidala had brokered a peace between the surface Nubians and the Gungans that had lasted until the invasion of the Empire. Now it seemed that the Resistance would finally unearth just how fragile both sides’ cooperation had become. Most of the other older Gungans on the council nodded their billed faces to each other and murmured in the same amphibian voice. Futh seemed to Rey to have the biggest backbone of all them but for what he made up in voice they all seemed to be lacking by way of brain power by some substantial margin. And meanwhile they all took small jabs at one another, and while the Queen turned up her nose at being glared at by the bipedal amphibians, their true enemies were bearing down upon them.

Rey couldn’t escape the feeling that Kylo Ren was somehow watching all that was transpiring here and laughing with Snoke about it.

“Your Honour, I assure you I’m perfectly capable of negotiating on the behalf of the General and the entire Resistance,” Connix announced, standing in the main pulpit clad in Nubian dress and her blonde hair woven and streamed like the pluming bun Rey had seen Leia wearing on D’Qar shortly before leaving for Ach-To the first time.

Connix even looked like Leia a lot in this respect. The gravitas of the General played into Kaydel’s esteem, made her look grander, in the same way Leia looked like royalty everywhere she went. Rey had seen the holos of the General as the Resistance made the exodus to Crait – her black and greyed dress was regal as she took her post as Captain of the _Raddus_. Connix had been farther down the command structure for Admiral Ackbar was still the ship’s executive officer. But Rey now looked at the back of Connix in her noble dress and beautiful updo of hair and saw in her the ability to lead, the fearsome nature of a true talent and a feather in the cap of the Resistance. It was much the same she saw in Finn and in Poe, in Rose and in Tallie Lintra. The Generals, Admirals, and Jedi Masters of old were still very much there, still the pillars of the old war with the Empire and still able and willing to lead the Resistance against the First Order. But Rey was starting to see the new life of rebellion in her friends and family around her.

Ironically, she had seen much of the same materiel in Phasma on Takodana – her ability to survive, to remain in spite of everything. Finn had told Rey how she had shut down the shield on Starkiller Base without much hesitation or persuasion. It had not been because she wanted to defect, not because she wanted to leave the First Order; Phasma had yielded into Finn’s power purely to save herself, to kneel to the winning side of the conflict at that moment. She did whatever she had to in order to survive. It was why she hadn’t tried to fly Rey out of the monsoon in her modified bomber, for it would have been suicide. But that tenacity was made of similar stuff to how Connix stepped into the shoes of her adoptive mother.

“We were sent here on the suggestion of the General to assist Naboo and its Gungan population in the aftermath of the attack on Hosnian Prime,” Connix addressed to the Boss. “Please allow us to build an alliance between our organisation and the Naboo peoples by extending us the honour of helping both species native to this beautiful planet – the Nubians _and_ the Gungans.”

The Queen looked to the Boss and him to her. Rey smiled, sensing victory already inevitable with Connix speaking in the highest regard. She was talking like royalty, like the truest of diplomats – with her on this there was no way they could fail. The Jedi fledgling stood up unannounced, Threepio calling after her quietly; she lowered her hand and waved him off, retreating out of the council chamber. The negotiations wouldn’t need her voice now that they had Leia’s in the form of Connix’s. Rey left the room with the trails of the young administrator continuing after seeing her leave in confidence. Connix would know where Rey was going now.

“As daughter of the late Queen Amidala, the General has a great affinity for the place of her mother’s birth. She would want to broker not only an alliance between Naboo and the Resistance, but a new treaty of cooperation and friendship between the planet’s peoples,” Connix told them with borrowed authority. “I am here as an ambassador for the Resistance to ensure that today that happens – and that we can arrive at an agreement to band together against the hate of the First Order.”

* * *

Rey found Rose near the main mezzanine where the Jedi had entered Otoh Gunga with Jar Jar Binks guiding her. It was arranged to be a form of lobby, or a central courtyard if one could have one in a bubble city fully submersed in water. From the shielding substance that made up the walls like windows, every single place Rey looked able to see into the next room and the next, everything could be seen all throughout the city. Gungans, both civilian and city guard wandered and meandered around the central foyer of the city a lot less clumsily than Binks himself, with a few of the amphibian bipedal creatures mounted onto other bipedal amphibians, albeit mounts and not sentient peoples. Rey had been given a quick lesson on the makeup of the Gungan Grand Army by Binks over dinner (which most of it was slurped down by the Gungans and their long tongues spitting out at the plated food without much used of their webbed hands), and had learned that the smaller bipedal amphibian cavalry the Gungans rode were called Kaadu, native and predacious omnivores that roamed the Nubian woods and lakes. Other mounted elements of the army that carried deflector shield generators were called Fambaas and were also native to Onderon (in much the same way Rancors and Sarlaac also dwelled on Felucia as well as Tatooine).

She could see Rose watching as one of the Gungan guardsmen herded a small procession of the Kaadu to another bubble across the way from the foyer. Through the shielding of the walls she could it almost clearly, the only blemishes came from the water outside. One touch through the shielding and Rose could pass into the underground ocean masking Otoh Gunga and swim with the fish as Rey had en route to the Gungan capital.

Rose looked enthralled, but jumped a little when Rey came behind her, the palm of the Jedi’s hand landing softly but more than a little dearly on the small of the mechanic’s back. The fledgling Padawan was already smiling, her grin warm and a little inviting already – watching the rolling underwater waves had been a soothing distraction from the previous few nights. Rose appeared calm and much over the assassination attempt due to how safe the Gungans made their city.

“I though they needed you for the summit?”

“Connix can handle them without me, I think. One stand in for a Rebellion General is enough for what’s going on. Are you okay?” Rey asked, her hand still holding Rose’s beautiful hips when the smaller operative turned herself, brushing some of the loose strands of her hair behind her ear. She looked more than happy to have Rey outside of the summit.

Beyond the main entry bubble Rose and Rey quickly saw a flash of light, and then the whole circumference of another, much smaller bubble (possibly a single home) shaded completely, a bathing envelope of black consuming the tint of the shield. It was quite obviously for privacy. Both of the women looked a little stunned, but enthusiastically surprised at the sight.

“I didn’t know they could do that...” Rey mused, her face slapped with shock.

Rose’s hand gravitated towards her own on the mechanic’s hip, Rey startled but blushing, while the rest of her roped in closer, arms clasping around the famous Jedi. The look in the smaller woman’s eyes was downright to die for adorable and the intent behind it rather ironclad with misty want. Rey could sense it in no time at all, even without the Force – it was the same look she had received multiple times in her scavenger’s life, a look she’d given herself to Shara Bey one dusty night on Jakku before the ace left. The scope of the want was nothing new, but Rose giving it to her made Rey more than a little moonstruck. She had her hands on the mechanic’s generous waist, feeling her beautiful curves and seeing her in her memory’s eye from over a night ago, remembering all of Tico’s naked dimensions. Rey almost became thoughtfully drunk on it in an instant as she dared to close her eyes. Rose drew ever closer, wanting Rey to hold her beautiful body while they blended into the Gungan cityscape bustling all around them. The Padawan reached out with the Force to confirm that no one was watching them beyond a glance. The presence of two humans randomly around the city was bound to be something out of the norm, let alone them getting this close, their hands on each other. Rey simply loved the way Rose felt in her hands, loving how her grasp crested around her vivacious curves. Rose wasn’t the same as other members of the Resistance, but she was certainly one of the more beautiful operatives Rey had met now, and the Jedi wanted just a little more while they were still on Naboo for a moment longer.

The mechanic giggled as they met eyes again and reached for one another in casual embrace. Rose had hinted she wanted to keep things like this – casual. Rey could only oblige her, doing her the honour of maintaining a lovable distance while engaging with her like this, and it was such a fresh change of pace after what had transpired on Takodana. If this was as far as they went together, if Rey returned to Crait the next time and Rose had moved on completely and they no longer looked at each other like lovers, Rey would still feel complete.

“I’m pretty sure we still have our rooms until the mornin’...” Rose alluded, her cheeks still a little flushed and her smile cutesy beyond belief. Rey was already beaming and throwing her head back at the mere suggestion. She already had her answer. “Wanna get out of here while Connix does our work for us?”

“Oh definitely,” Rey grinned. “I think I owe it to you after the last time.”

Rose chuckled too. “Damn right you do!” She boasted, her gentle touch grazing Rey’s naked upper arm. She reached and held onto her fingers a little nervously but wantonly – a gravitational pull drew them consistently together as they basked in the underwater light of the Gungan city. Luminous jellies lit up the central entrance hall as they did in all of the bubble orbs that passed for houses and buildings. “I’m pretty sure I still have my suite...”

Rey’s fingers flickered close to Rose’s semi-closed collar. “Good... I’d like to have you again before we have to leave. I’m sure the summit is going to take most of the day anyway...”

“Can you,” Rose stammered, her cheeks illuminating a bright and hot pink to match the rest of her as she clocked Rey almost inspecting the skin down the delicate curve of her cleavage as stealthily as the Jedi could. “Can you do that thing again?” The mechanic requested quietly.

“The thing?” Rey played dumb.

“Yeah... You know,” Rose toyed, almost squirming as Rey’s bothersome hands claimed her body in the small alcove close to the bubble wall they had. “With the Force?”

The fledgling Jedi smiled as she twisted and curled in her fingers close to her lover’s thigh. “Oh, this?” She asked, before Rose’s knees almost gave out while she stifled a euphoric moan deep within herself. She nodded in contained ecstasy but Rey could see the tremble of damp spreading between her thighs as she clasped them tightly shut. There was no more time to waste, the Jedi had her and needed her more.

* * *

The shade close down around the harder bubble wall, Rey almost slammed Rose to the wall, letting her catch herself with spread and naked legs below a naked and fully-born rump perky and expansive, begging her lover’s tough. Rose had a splendid rear – Rey finally gazed upon it in the opened light of the small suite. Admiring the softness of it first hand before she lurched forward in her wrap underwear and cloth chest wrap to take a generous handful of it, Rey almost licked her chops with a hunger. Rose cried meekly when she felt the Jedi claim her rear, holding her and flanking her. Rey didn’t want to waste any more of the limited time they had. She’d already begun to nibble on the submissive mechanic’s ear, still gripping her buttocks with a needy hand, loving her plump size.

Jelly lights dimmed, as if sensing the infectious and erotic mood between the two desperate women, and Rey huffed as she bit into Rose’s flesh, almost ravenous. The tender operative was as clay in her hands, more so than she had been in the nights previous, now she really did exert the fact that she wanted it. Wanting Rey as raw and almost as unhinged as she could have her was all Rose could expel from her wordless mouth in short breaths. Safety brought contempt and confidence in Rey, her hands eager to start and her grip more dominant then in the Theed Royal Palace. Rose was simply too easy to handle like this, spread against the wall.

With the flick of her fair feet, Rey demanded her lover’s legs further apart, reminding her of her own authority with a swift strike on her rear. Rose’s breath hitched as she cried in luscious moan, the cusp of a tremble begging for more.

Rey indulged her begging ward, striking her second cheek with the back of her hand and rubbing out the pain with soothing motions. Already she could practically smell how wet Rose was. Her budding sex was crying to be touched. The fingers of Rey’s free hand motioned upward and tugged lavishly on Rose’s loose threads of undone hair, curling her many strands among her own tender fingers and knotting them around her grip. In a final flourish, the fledgling Jedi tugged and did so hard, enough to pull back on all of Rose. She kept her lover pinned to the membrane of the nebulous wall but Rey pulled harshly on Rose’s hair, allowing her to gasp and moan lavishly into the heated air. Another spank followed and the fair mechanic rewarded her lover with a melodic cry, a plea of her name – Rey’s ego adored it, her fingers digging into the supple and tender softness of her lover’s rear cheeks.

“I think you’re more willing than last time,” Rey beamed, her palm moving from rump to thigh and cruising gently around the curvature.

Her lover’s thigh trembled to Rey’s touch, her body fleeting and her breath hitching again in the promise of the touch. Rey was dangling it so closely to her that Rose wanted to leap and clasp the opportunity with both hands and all she had. Her soul leeched for Rey’s expert touch, for her body and mind, her softly applied dominance.

“You’re...you’re teasing me more than last time,” Rose trembled, her legs shaking again under her Jedi’s power. With little but guiding movements, Rey divided them again, parting and letting the air hit the central and sensual parts of her muse.

She sensed all of Rose, the small of her breathing and the micro-movements the naked eye could not discern. The rising and falling of her beautiful bosom on her chest, the tensing and relaxing of muscles everywhere and then the prominent begging from between her legs – Rey could feel each and every little change in her close lover. She flanked her closer, pressing her front to Rose’s back and reminding the begging woman of her own shape. Rose’s breath hitched again, gasping gently when Rey’s lips pushed tenderly against her shoulder blades and kissed her. The mechanic threatened to move her abnormally smooth hand, only for Rey to protest with her own, pinning wrists to the gelatinous wall. It was soft and clinically smooth against Rose’s naked form. Traced close to her fingers below Rose’s flank, Rey could feel the warmth and begging folds of her sex simply pleading for her touch.

“I can sense it in you, Rose,” Rey’s voice announced, taking a sultry tone as her lips raked up and down her lover’s back while her hands did the rest of the work.

“Rey... _Stars_ ,” she gasped, her world totally rocked by the presence of Rey’s mental tendrils touching the corners of her opened mind. They bonded again, akin to how they had done in the suite in Theed – Rose and Rey blended into one being for a moment, the Jedi’s fingers tracing up the interior of her leg feeling more at home but still with an element alien sensation that registered deep in Rose’s core, tantalising her further. “I can feel you in my mind, Rey. You already feel so good...”

Wet taste and sensitive lips raked across Rose’s shoulder, planting more and more along the lines of her full-bodied skin. Her complexion was serene, the tranquil total of her body perfect to taste on the cusp of Rey’s lips. She could not get enough of this in her power. The attachment was real – the ecstasy of sex a sure boon but the bond connecting the pair together brought tingles to the most essential parts of Rey’s being. It was far different to what had transpired on Takodana before, and Rey could see this as something far healthier, far more loving. Her teeth dragged across the outer shell of her lover’s soft shoulder and to her neck, kissing again and taking in the delight of her frame. Rose gasped again gently under Rey, like the cooing of a matriarchal pack animal ready to pounce into a gentle frenzy. The mechanic was nothing predatory – here, that was Rey, her eyes almost like slits in her skull as the Force reached into the recesses of her mind and stirred her craze for naked flesh. Her fingers slid up the length of Rose’s inner thigh and found what they knew they wanted finally; Rose once more hitched her breath and whispered her lover’s calling gently. 

When Rey’s two fingers curled upward and covered the slit of Rose’s entrance, her own hand snapped free from the wall and joined them. Fingers guided Rey’s, begging her to reach higher and to tantalise the beading clitoris already throbbing to play. Silence overtook the pair of them, neither woman daring to break the mental link that concentrated around them. Rey’s freehand reached for glossy black hair and her furthermore expert grip threaded into the separate locks, entangling herself in the thicket of Rose’s hair as her fingertips found the soft brush of her bush down below.

“Relax,” Rey enticed her gentle lover. Rose continued to silently beg to be touched, as if her life depended on it very much.

“Touch me...” She overtly requested.

“I will when I feel you relax,” Rey protested.

“Please... You’ve already got me like this... _Feel_ it,” Rose reminded her, her hand pinning her lover’s palm against her dripping folds and showing her how wet she had become. Rose’s sex was sodden in anticipation.

Rey flexed with her power, her Jedi and physical authority streaming into her forearms from strong will and resolve – she practically slammed Rose gently into the wall, using the Force at her own whim to pin her other wrist to the bubble wall along with her head. Then, still wanting to exert power and push the mechanic further, her fingertips still dancing around her folds and further driving the delicate darling into frenzy, Rey gave another tug on her hair, almost bullying her into moaning. And yet the reward was indeed melodic once more, music on Rey’s ear as she pressed her bosom into her lover’s back.

She was _very_ wet already, Rey could hardly control herself as much as she roughhoused her gentle lover into submission – part of her wanted to flex suddenly, finding well-placed trust in her movements with the way Rose reacted. Both in how she once more moaned Rey’s namesake and how her sex dripped a little more coaxing the dominant Padawan into a deeper touch, and each of them connected deeper. Neither was going to remain standing for much longer, regardless of what happened. Rey closed her eyes and attuned herself to the cool of the air, the mild damp emanating from the underground ocean that obscured Otoh Gunga from discovery. She even found herself wanting, even she was wet for Rose.

Her fingers curled evermore, just as Rey pulled a little more on her lover’s hair, feeling the cry under her before she kissed naked skin again. Rose had a split second then before sensation found her in the sweetest of areas. Rey reached out with her feelings, touching deep into Rose’s mind at the moment her fingers penetrated her, and the mechanic was plunged into a realm of fantastic euphoria.

The first touch between her soaking folds felt like the first ever.

It was as if she was a younger woman back on Hays Minor, broken off from the rest of the work force and fooling around on the crane equipment with a man whose name she had long forgotten. He was nowhere near as delicate or accommodating as Rey’s touch had been, but she’d enjoyed herself under him. Feeling his warmth close to her own, both of them still nearly clothed, Rose felt like Rey had unearthed her awakening, and then buried it all over again in a layer of incredible top soil that obscured all of her senses to the bone. Rey whittled at her resolve, and chipped into her pleasure like a spinal tap deep to the root. Rose soon lost complete feeling of which way Rey was touching her – she could still recognise both of the Jedi’s fingers inside of her, her hand reaching around her hip and navel to approach from the top, but could hardly feel much else in the sea of ecstasy that consumed her body.

She moaned, screamed even, a much more liberal and indulgent cry than before. In Theed she had reserved herself, in Otoh Gunga, pinned against the shield and tinted wall fully cradled in Rey’s authority, she didn’t feel in the need now.

“Yes! Rey! Yes!” Rose cried out, lurching and backing up into her lover’s core just to get enough.

The Jedi’s body reacted; pounding her own front into Rose’s rear and making the spanks sting a little once again from the force. Rey still had strength in her forearms, still with enough faculties to control how her lover stood.

“Keep those legs open for me, okay?” She asked, really meaning to order. Her fingers were almost furious with speed soon enough, the pressure they tapped into Rose’s delicious entrance perfect for her. It was as if Rey could, and probably was, reading her connected mind. Or perhaps the Jedi didn’t need to. Rey even felt powerful like this, as if she had some masterful advantage that felt almost like cheating – her influence wasn’t superfluous either, and it was hard earned. When she demanded Rose open her legs, the Jedi attained. Rose’s thigh parted and her rear shook slightly against her own sex, softness pressing together.

_Deeper_. Rose thought, and within seconds she felt it within her. Rey was reading her mind, sensing her thoughts, even touching them and holding them close.

Already she was close – both of them could feel that, the connection between their two minds so strong and the Force bristling all around them in the room. It was as if everything were alive, as if everything outside was within and swimming around them. Rose felt as if she was going to turn the hard shield walling into the soft membrane that walled the entrance hall and that she and her dominant lover were going to pass through. They would be floating, sinking, drifting like asteroids out among the sea under the Naboo surface. The world held so much beauty, and Rose could feel it above them underwater. She was ragged and hot with the ecstasy from it all, and all of it catalysed by Rey at her flank, touching her sensually, filling her up physically and emotionally.

Once again Rey kissed her neck, nibbling on the soft flesh of her throat and pecking upward. With her fingers sinking and delving into the deepest parts of the naked Rose, Rey reached higher along her lover’s neck and to her ear, taking a large section of the cartilage between her teeth. At the same time, the pressure which she applied to her lover’s centre, to the space between her folds as she continuously penetrated her increased. Rose gently screamed into the opened air.

“I’m so close, Rey!” She cried.

“I want you to come for me,” the Jedi leveraged. “Please Rose. I want you to come for me when you can.” It was all that the mechanic needed all in all.

Hands all around her, the Force applied to her body and pressing her against the wall, with now three fingers filling her space and curling within to find her true spot, Rose tried to contain herself and withstand the assault in her senses. She tried, but failed spectacularly – Rey was far too much for her to handle. With the Jedi all around her, her head against hers, Rose leaned in, constricting around Rey’s fingers to keep them within herself and her walls totally shattered.

She peaked into a beautiful and explosive orgasm as Rey continued to have her way with her. “I’m coming... I’m coming...”

“I know,” Rey whispered, kissing her cheek as she held her against the wall while letting her ride it out. It would be a short flight back to Crait, and in the moment when they finally reached safe completion against the wall, Rey realised she wouldn’t be remaining even for the debriefing. Her file was already written, and would go to Leia – she was needed on Ach-To now more than in the Resistance stronghold.

She missed Finn, but Rey could not in good conscience put him in danger. Holding Rose still, she remembered the Knight of Ren. Their master would still be looking for her beyond Naboo. Nowhere was truly safe, Rey knew that – she hoped Rose knew it for her too.


End file.
